_
Facebook-f Twitter Linkedin-in

Independent. Informative. Intelligent.

Elections

GOP First District field gains third contender

The GOP side of the race for North Carolina’s First District U.S. House seat is beginning to get a little crowded. Lenoir County Commissioner Eric Rouse announced this week that he’s joining a field that already includes state Sen. Bobby Hanig and Rocky Mount Mayor Sandy Roberson. Rouse indicated via...

By Ray Gronberg

October 9, 2025

Edwards gets a primary

U.S. Rep. Chuck Edwards, R-11th, appears likely to face a challenge in next spring’s Republican primary. Adam R. Smith, an Army veteran, announced his candidacy on Thursday. Via a news release, he said he’s running because he’s fed up “after a decade of watching liberal Marxism erode our Constitution, flood...

By Welcome

October 6, 2025

Berger bucks

Senate leader Phil Berger has raised 71 times as much money as his GOP primary challenger so far in in the 2025-26 election cycle, but his supporters aren’t taking it for granted that he’s got enough. Early in September, Martin Marietta CEO Ward Nye circulated a fundraising appeal to fellow...

By Ray Gronberg

September 25, 2025

Two incumbents trail in Charlotte council races

A low-turnout September primary is poised to turn a pair of Charlotte City Council incumbents out of office. Unofficial results indicate that District 3 and District 5 incumbents Tiawana Brown and Marjorie Molina lost their re-election bids, to challengers Joi Mayo and J.D. Mazuera Arias respectively. It remains to be...

By Ray Gronberg

September 11, 2025

Courthouse politics

Rural-county courthouse-crowd politics. That appears the ultimate explanation for why Senate leader Phil Berger and other Republicans in Rockingham County backed a Democrat, incumbent Ed Wilson, for a Superior Court judgeship in 2022. Going into the election cycle, Wilson had lined up support from lawyers, fellow judges and other key...

By Ray Gronberg

September 10, 2025

Berger rift

A group of coastal Republicans has demanded Senate leader Phil Berger’s exclusion from “any and all support from” the party, including access to its official and affiliated functions. According to the 3rd Congressional District’s Republican Party Executive Committee, Berger committed “party disloyalty” in 2022 when he endorsed a a Democratic...

By Ray Gronberg

September 9, 2025

Hanig runs for Congress

State Sen. Bobby Hanig, R-Currituck, says he’s going to run for Congress, which ensures that the Senate’s GOP caucus will have at least one new member in the 2027-28 session. On Wednesday, Hanig said he’s going to run for the 1st District seat currently held by U.S. Rep Don Davis,...

By Ray Gronberg

September 4, 2025

Map making

Gerrymandering congressional districts is the hottest topic of the month for state legislators in several states, but not so much in North Carolina. At least so far. That seems strange given that our state has earned a reputation as a particularly bad actor in gerrymandering, according to Democratic Party loyalists...

By David Mildenberg

August 18, 2025

Breaking: Federal judge sides with Riggs

A Trump-appointed federal District Court judge has ordered North Carolina’s Board of Elections to certify Allison Riggs’ victory over Jefferson Griffin in their battle for a state Supreme Court seat. Judge Richard Myers ruled that doing otherwise, given the facts of the case, would violate the equal-protection and due-process rights...

By Ray Gronberg

May 6, 2025

Sen. Measmer, arriving soon

Cabarrus County Commissioners Chairman Chris Measmer will take former Sen. Paul Newton’s seat, once Gov. Josh Stein formalizes the choice made by the county GOP. Word of the party executive committee’s choice comes from both the Concord Independent Tribune and the North State Journal. Measmer emerged as the pick from...

By Ray Gronberg

April 9, 2025

Berger: “I intend to run”

Senate leader Phil Berger says he’s going to run for another term as the senator for Rockingham and rural Guilford counties. “My intent has been, all along, to run again,” Berger said during a post-session gaggle with reporters on Tuesday. “I felt that the appropriate thing would be to make...

By Ray Gronberg

February 19, 2025

Berger-Page: The warm-up

So if he runs again, Senate leader Phil Berger will have a home-county opponent in the GOP primary, Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page. What can we expect from here forward? First, Berger has some thinking to do. I haven’t been taking it for granted he’s going to run again, regardless...

By Ray Gronberg

February 17, 2025

Stein announces additional staff hires

Gov. Josh Stein has added 10 more people to his senior staff, bringing on board more veterans of predecessor Roy Cooper’s administration as well as some hires from further afield. Former U.S. Justice Department antitrust lawyer Adam Chandler heads the list, joining up as the governor’s policy director. The Burlington...

By Ray Gronberg

February 14, 2025

Easley Jr. joins Golden LEAF board

Among former Gov. Roy Cooper’s last moves was to appoint Michael Easley Jr., the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, to the Golden LEAF Foundation board. Two of Cooper’s five appointments to the 15-member board were up on Nov. 30. Darryl Moss, former mayor of Creedmoor, is leaving the board...

By Ray Gronberg

January 15, 2025

Facebook-f Twitter Linkedin